


Nothing but trouble

by Daiako (Achrya)



Series: These First Years... [1]
Category: ALL OUT!! - Amase Shiori (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Awkwardness, Coming of Age, Dual Sex Omegas, Feelings, Intersex Omegs, Jealousy, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Polyamorous Pack, Weird Biology, ruts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 04:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14634368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achrya/pseuds/Daiako
Summary: The new first years are not just a handful on the field but off as well. Sekizan and Mutsumi do their best to help their new team and packmates through the weird, strange, and emotional events that come with the first year of high school but sometimes it's easier said than done. Especially since the second and third years aren't in much better states half the time.They try their best to avoid problems and, when that doesn't work, to clean up the mess left behind.





	Nothing but trouble

**Author's Note:**

> Omegas in this AU are dual sex, meaning they have both a penis and vagina, and may have any number of secondary sexual characteristics. If this is your squick this isn't the story for you, as sooner rather than later people will be engaging in sexual activity. Like. Next part soon. 
> 
> Partner sharing/swapping, and poly-relationships are considered the norm in this universe. Triads (Usually an alpha, beta, and omega) are the most common relationship type in adults, and packs are very commonly made of many couples, triads, and moresomes. People who pair off and stay outside of packs are less common, but not exactly rare.

“Does it ever bother you?”

Mutsumi looked up from his phone, blinking owlishly at Gion. The younger alpha had slunk over from his table to sit across from him while he wasn’t looking and looked...unhappy, to say the least of things. Mutsumi cast a sideways look at Matsuo who shrugged slightly, then frowned at Gion. He had a feeling he knew where this was going, there were only so many reasons Gion would come to him instead of one of the first years or Matsuo, who was always everyone’s first choice when it came to heart to hearts.

There was just something at Matsuo that made people open up and confess all their worries. One would think he was a beta, and not an alpha, with the way he seemed to naturally put people at ease. Not that alphas weren’t capable of empathy, no matter the stereotypes, but few were as good at it as Matsuo.

For Gion to come to him meant it was something he thought Mutsumi would have a better understanding of and that could only be so many things.

“Does what bother me?”

Gion turned his head slightly and Mutsumi followed his gaze, already knowing what he’d find. Sekizan was, for a change of pace, sitting elsewhere. Some of the other third and second years had been vying for time with him and Taku was always obliging about that sort of thing when he could be. It was a balancing act, being captain and pack leader and taking care of every member of the pack however he could, and Taku took it all seriously. He didn’t halfway do anything, ever, but especially not when it came to the pack.

So for now he was entertaining the attentions of any who wanted to be around him, letting them run around and fight over who got to refill his rice bowl and get him seconds and thirds of curry, keep his water and tea cups full, making notes for him as he talked about practice and what he wanted to try out on their second day of camp and adding their own thoughts and observations. There was a collection of snacks growing, some from vending machines and others clearly brought along to camp for this very reason, and some small arguments about who would get to present their gifts tonight and who would have to wait until another day.

After this they would probably split up, some of them taking their chance with catching Sekizan’s eye in the showers and bath, offering massages and back scrubs, others would handle laundry and making up futons and other tasks to make themselves look good. All in hopes that when the lights went out Sekizan would choose them to share his futon for a little while.

It wasn’t just a sex thing. The desire to spend time with Sekizan as their pack leader and shared omega, to take care of him after a hard day of practice: it was something innate and undeniable, that burned at the back of all their minds and teased at all of their senses and instincts. It comforted them to do it, brought them closer as a team, and reaffirmed their loyalty to Sekizan.

Today had been a rough day, with the start of camp and the sudden appearance of Komori-san. Sekizan had taken the brunt of the man’s criticism and, as always, was poised to carry everything on his shoulders. It made them want to do more for their leader, to give him bits of themselves to ease the strain, and to make him feel good, even though they were all tired and aching.

Mutsumi knew all that was true because he felt it too. Maybe felt it even stronger than they all did, if something like that could be measured.

But he also knew exactly what Gion was getting at. It was his mark that Taku wore on his neck, a dark bruise Mutsumi never let fade for long. He was Sekizan’s alpha, the primary one at least, and to someone like Gion who seemed to not be used to pack dynamics it had to look strange that he could sit by calmly as others fought for time with Taku.

To Mutsumi it was as natural a thing as breathing. He didn’t think about it much anymore and never in the way Gion was suggesting.

“No, it doesn’t.” Mutsumi declared finally, smiling slightly. “Why should it?”

Gion sputtered, cheeks flushing red, and waved his arms like he trying to pull the words from the air. Or take off and fly away. Both, maybe. “I...he’s- it’s just...the captain is yours, isn’t he? Don’t you want to be the only one he’s with?”

Mutsumi pressed his lips into a thin line and looked askance at Matsuo, hoping for a little back up on the matter because he wasn’t really sure where to begin with all of that.

Matsuo let out a noisy breath then, smiling sympathetically, stood up. Gion looked at him, blinking in confusion.  “I’m just gonna...Leave you two to this. I’m going to be over there. And not here.”

The ‘over there laughing at your misfortune’ was heavily implied by the half smile Matsuo was wearing.  

“Way to abandon me.” Mutsumi spat with no real heat behind it, only just managing to not laugh at Matsuo’s less than convincing apology before taking his tray and slinking away to sit next Ebumi. Ebumi narrowed his eyes and hissed at Matsuo but the alpha steadfastly ignored that in favor of launching into a story about something or other. It was painfully obvious he had no intention of returning to help Mutsumi field Gion’s questions.

Mutsumi couldn’t blame him. This was a talk they’d both known was coming, though not so soon or started by Gion. It was something that couldn’t really be avoided. First years were hitting the point where they’d have their first cycles, be they heats, ruts, or beta seasons, and that brought a lot of confusion, feelings, and hormones. So many hormones and if Mutsumi’s own first year was anything to go by a shit ton of bad decisions to go with them.  

Looking after them was equal parts talking them through questioning themselves and dragging them away from each other when they decided empty classrooms and the clubroom were good places to try and mount each other. At least that was how last year had gone. Especially the prying apart first years while they were trying to hump each others brains out part.

That was always a fun time and, if he was honest, he’d figured that would be the path Gion ended up blundering down. He was reckless in just above every other aspect of his life, who was Mutsumi to assume this was the one where he’d want actual knowledge beforehand?

Mutsumi liked to think he had a good understanding of his teammates, even the new first years, and could sense when something wasn’t going right. He had to in order to be a good vice-captain and alpha to those around them, and to be at Taku’s side. Packs were complicated and the more people you added the more complicated they became, especially when school and sports were the core of things. It meant the ranks weren’t exactly stable, that people would come and go with graduation, and that outside of a love of Rugby they might not be be all that compatible as a group.

Friction was inevitable and it was on the pack leaders to keep it under control.

The year before, when they were second years, a third year had been captain, and all the other third years had followed him, but the second and first years had made no secret of being aligned with Sekizan. Taku had, accidently, been winning the loyalty of everyone around him since he started playing and that had made many things complicated. Even when Taku had insisted they defer to their elders it hadn’t done much to cut the resentment from the third years.

The air around the team was different now. Calmer, even with their unique first years, more determined, more solid. Sekizan took care of them and they took care of him in return, like packs were supposed to do for their leaders. Things were coming together nicely.

There were a still a few solos of course, parts of the team but not interested in being absorbed into the pack for whatever reason, but not as many as in past years. Solos always needed to be watched a little closer, to make sure they weren’t left out or overlooked in the shuffle. It was easier with some than others; Gion seemed uncertain about committing to being pack but there was no doubt he was all in for the team. Ebumi however was...difficult to figure out at the best of time, in a lot of ways, but Mutsumi figured he’d come around when he was ready, and Suwa walked a thin line between Solo and Pack.

Mutsumi had been hoping their first training camp together would help in that regard but here they were, eating dinner together only to have Ebumi tucked in a corner of one of the tables, alone after scaring everyone else away (except Matsuo, who seemed to think Ebumi’s attitude was endearing and Mutsumi couldn’t help but imagine a dozen different ways that was doomed to fail), Suwa was nose deep in a rugby book, and Gion had been focused on everything except spending time with the pack.

Most of his attention had been on Iwashimizu and Oharano, who had the rest of the first years and a few of the second years who didn’t want to bother trying their luck with Sekizan tonight crowding around them, trying to draw them into conversation and not at all subtly pushing snacks and drinks on them.

Ebumi, Suwa, and Kifune had been on the receiving end of that kind of enthusiastic attention their first year but all but the latter had made it pretty clear they weren’t interested and Kifune was entirely too busy hanging over Sekizan’s shoulder and looking smug to bother with anyone after him. That left only the first year omega duo, but even if that weren’t the case Mutsumi had no doubt they’d be centers of attention. They were the newest omegas on the team, hadn’t yet chosen anyone to ‘spend time’ with, and both had the sort of figures many alphas and betas would be drawn to. Lean but muscular, trim waists with strong legs and thighs, strong arms, and not inconsiderable backsides. Iwashimizu had the height and broad chest that many athlete and model omegas had and Oharano the curves people adored in idols and actors. And their faces weren’t hard to look at by any stretch.

Sitting in his seat, head help high as he picked through the brightly colored wrappers with seeming disinterest, Oharano was the picture of an omega who knew he had the world in the palm of his hand. Iwashimizu was red faced and looking increasingly panicked but that was how he’d always been. Mutsumi had seen similar scenes play out with Iwashi and Miyuki in junior high, with Miyuki at the center, holding court over starry eyed alphas and betas hanging on his every word while Iwashimizu tried to sink into the floor and disappear.

The major difference was that then Miyuki and Iwashi had been too young for anyone to seriously make a move, so there had been an innocence to everything then. Clumsy attempts at getting attention from cute omegas and being favored by them for bragging rights and maybe hand holding or a kiss if they were very lucky (Miyuki had liked to hand out kisses like candy, just to see the alphas get flustered and stupid in his presence) but little more. Now there was some intent behind the attempts, a very real undercurrent of desire and want that simmered in the air.

More than once Mutsumi had witnessed some of the younger boys go slack jawed and foggy eyed when Oharano strutted past them, reeking of sweat and omega sweetness. Oharano was going to be...not a problem, because he was a good kid and wouldn’t go out his way to cause issues beyond a little teasing, but problems were going to creep up around him eventually. There was just something in the way he carried himself that said he enjoyed pushing the buttons of his admirers just a little too much.

That too was something they’d have to keep an eye on. The first year omegas would have their pick from the others, as few or as many as they wanted, but that was something to be taken lightly or blundered into. In packs omegas were often shared, thought not always (Kamo was exclusively with Kashima these days) and not forever (Hysou wasn’t seeing anyone at the moment, a first for him) and Mutsumi had seen more than a few alphas and betas get too attached since starting high school.

It was easy to end up heartbroken, or worse, if someone set their sights on another too early. It took time to settle into one’s place in the pack, or outside of it, and a pack could find themselves splintering from the core out if things weren’t handled carefully.

Now, he decided as he watched Gion’s expression become even more confused, was as good a time as any to do that.

Carefully.

“Sekizan is my-” He hesitated, trying to settle on the right term, before pushing onward. Sekizan was a lot of things to him, but that wasn’t what Gion needed to hear. “Boyfriend, and captain, but he doesn’t belong to me _._ ”

Going through life thinking omegas were something to own just because some traditionalists pushed that mentality, as if the ability to be claimed made them objects and not people, was dangerous. And stupid. And Mutsumi wasn’t going to deal with that kind of thing on the team, so best to stomp it out, or weed it as, as thoroughly and quickly as possible.

Gion made a face. “I know he doesn’t belong to you. People don’t belong to people.” He said it like he thought Mutsumi was being stupid; Mutsumi just smiled faintly. “I just mean...don’t you get upset? When he’s with other people?”

Underclassman were so...they made things so awkward. How did he explain things for Gion, who seemed totally unaware of how packs worked, in a way that wouldn’t just confused him more? And wouldn’t involve spilling all the intimate details like ‘I like to watch’? Especially the latter, but he had to keep the former in mind. It happened, some people were raised in homes by Solo-inclined parents and so pack dynamics were just never picked up, but usually by high school a person had been in a few clubs and picked some things up yet Gion, somehow, had managed to miss everything. It didn’t make sense to be so oblivious.

Then again. Gion.

Mutsumi spoke slowly, trying to bring his thoughts together. “Sekizan is pack minded. We both are.”

“Yeah, but what does that mean?” Gion prodded, leaning forward over the table. “How did you know? How does it work? Why? What if you weren’t both that way?”

Mutsumi made a face. “You just...know.”

He knew that wasn’t enough, saw it in the furrow of Gion’s brow but the words to explain something he just *felt* didn’t come as easily as he would have liked.

It wasn’t just about being happier in a pack, because they could do that without being so ‘open’. It was something else, something more. It was the bone deep need to care for and protect everyone around them, to see them healthy and happy and satisfied. It was about the easy intimacy, the connection, and feeling of rightness that came with fulfilling their roles.

It hadn’t come to Mutsumi as easily as it had Taku. He’d been...the first year had been hard, the slow realization that the omega he wanted was the kind that gave everything he had to everyone he cared about, and would never think to hold anything back from someone who asked. He’d been angry and jealous a lot of the time. Defensive. Possessive, which was expected to some degree (it was an alpha’s nature to mark and protect their territory) but the way he’d gone about it hadn’t been great.

He hadn’t wanted to share.

But at some point he’d stepped back to open his eyes to more than just rugby and Sekizan. He’d put in more time with the others in their year, and not just in a ‘watching you to make sure you don’t make moves on Sekizan’ way. He’d found that without realizing it he’d become a center to their group, the same as Taku, and that he wanted to be there.

The role of pack alpha was less flashy when the pack was Omega lead. There was no harem of adoring omegas and betas, like he heard some alpha packs were all about, but there were people who needed him to prop them up and hear their problems, or just to sit with them when things were hard. He’d checked homework, talked to parents, practiced and studied late into the night, walked dogs on a few occasions, told aggressive suitors to get lost, rubbed sore muscles, helped out with heats and ruts and seasons, and a lot of things inbetween. There were homemade gifts and treats in his shoe cubby, new laces stuffed into cleats, and quiet words of thanks.

It was different than being pack head, but a good different. He’d fallen into his place bit by bit, not realizing he was there until he was in deep until he was drowning in it, but he’d never wanted out. Things had just clicked, becoming ‘right’ to him, and he’d been pushing forward at Taku’s side every since.  It was what being an alpha was about to him: if Sekizan was the center of their pack than he was on the outside, doing his best to hold things together.

It was who he wanted to be, or maybe had always been.

Pack minded was just something you either were or weren’t, and it would become clear to a person eventually. There wasn’t a way to explain it to someone who wasn’t or, in Gion’s case, didn’t know yet.

“But what if you aren’t both the same?” Gion asked again, eyes darting back to Iwashi. The blond had finally accepted a package of melon bread from an annoyingly smug looking Kibi and was slowly nibbling his way through it.

The nice thing to say was that people worked it out, the Solos and Pack minded people could find some kind of middle ground, but Mutsumi didn’t know if he believed it. If he was a Solo could he have stood Taku taking his place as leader and sharing him like he did now? Could Taku have been happy stepping back from the pack, denying himself the connection he had with their team, to make Mutsumi happy? Was there a compromise that didn’t drive people crazy?

He’d never seen it happen.

“I don’t know.” He said honestly. “Wait and see what happens then figure it out. That’s what we all have to do.”

Gion slumped down onto the table with a grown. “Mutsumi-senpai, that’s not an answer! I don’t want to wait!”

Mutsumi patted the younger alpha’s head in sympathy. “No one does.”

Gion peppered him with more questions, tried to pry something more solid from him but Mutsumi did his best to stick what what he’d said. It would take time, whether Gion liked it or not. He wasn’t going to sort out everything with himself and Iwashimizu (especially since his response to ‘have you talked to Iwashi’ was to go cherry red and hiss that he couldn’t do that.) in one night. Or in one training camp. It just didn’t work like that.

But Mutsumi was pretty sure it would work, one way or the other, eventually. And he and Sekizan would be there to help, because that was what packmates did.  

**Author's Note:**

> This part is basically an into to the world. To sum things up: They're an omega lead pack, with Sekizan as their head/leader. Most of the third and second years have probably tapped or been tapped by that. Mutsumi is Sekizan's primary alpha and, as vice captain, is the second in command of the pack, and highest ranked alpha. He's probably tapped or been tapped by most the third and second year betas and omegas at the point (and some of the alphas). This is normal pack behavior (though, admittedly, being horny teenagers plays a big role) 
> 
> The first year in high school tends to be a big 'awakening' point for people, as first heats/ruts/seasons come along around 15/16 and this is the point where people really start to form packs and court people seriously. It's a very...confusing time. People get stupid.


End file.
